Sexuality and Gender Identity in the Kenyan Cyberspace

The Kenyan Cyberspace has today become the second line of self orientation, identity and discovery. It is true that a good percentage of under 25yrs are active in Face Book and other Social Media sites, this sites help or confuse this youths get answers to life most difficult questions.

“Are you ‘straight’ or ‘gay’ or ‘lessie’ or are you ‘bi-sexual’? Can we hook up? Aren’t these leading or misleading insights that are opening up a chapter for discussion on difficult subjects like Sexuality? This is all happening on the Kenyan Cyberspace. Kenyan Cyberspace has secretly but authoritatively opened up an exciting informal and formal argumentative and also informative episode bringing into the fore an aura of hope and despair in equal proportions.

If we can’t positively learn from the Kenyan Cyberspace and only choose to equate it to crime at whim, especially when we passionately want to vanquish or bash those we hate, according to my opinion we got it all wrong. That’s a foray of despair and crime. Cyberspace is a medium of networks in which some online conversation takes place. It has been successfully used as a source of information in the world over.

Sexuality and gender identity in the Kenyan Cyberspace

For many, speaking about our sexuality is a taboo, both within the family set up and in our schools. This misnomer has only widened the gap between the child and the parents, denying an individual an aforethought opportunity of a healthy psychosocial development. This is the worse mistake to contemplate.

Gender identity is a person’s conception of oneself as male or female or both or neither. Gender identity may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth. In the Kenyan Cyberspace one can freely insert a page or update a status that assigns them a particular gender role.

Kenyan Cyberspace

Kenyan Cyberspace has therefore become a quick alternative for filling this gap. If we all knew the merits of cybernetics, it wouldn’t be feeble to remember the origin of the science of the Kenyan Cyberspace, which was influenced by the theory of modernization of the ever changing dynamics of the world.

Sexual orientation is defined as a person’s romantic and sexual attractions to individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender. A heterosexual or a straight person is an individual attracted primarily to people of the opposite sex, a homosexual is one who is attracted to the same sex, a lesbian is a woman attracted primarily to other women while a bisexual is one attracted to people of both sexes.

Gay is a general term used to describe men who are attracted to other men. It is often used as a synonym for homosexual. Some men engage in sexual behavior with other men, but they aren’t necessarily identifying as “gay,” “homosexual” or “bisexual” they are referred as MSM. Women who engage in sexual behavior with other women, but aren’t necessarily identifying as “gay,” “homosexual,” “lesbian” or “bisexual” are referred as WSW.

The Kenyan Cyberspace has definitely been instrumental in creating safe spaces for those considering themselves as sexual minorities. Other categories that feature in the Kenyan Cyberspace conversation include the transgender who is someone whose sense of gender is different from their biological sex assigned by birth.

A gender identity scarcely in the Kenyan Cyberspace, the persons don’t feature dominantly is that of the intersex a condition in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male or a person born with genitals that seem to be in between male and female.

Creating unique families in the Kenyan Cyberspace

By creating safe spaces in the Kenyan Cyberspace one would wonder why society has offered a real living hell to some human beings, especially those who consider themselves sexual minorities. It would be common sense to appreciate that these individuals come from the same families as we all do. It is also common sense to accept research work, which is feasible and informative leading as towards understanding the diversity of gender and sexuality.

In the Kenyan Cyberspace, some unique words and acronyms are used to strengthen the bond of these sexual minorities and in essence creating a family unit for themselves due to the commonality they have. LGBTI is used to designate the wider sexual and gender minority family namely the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.

In the Kenyan Cyberspace some LGBTI persons opt to use false names to hide their real identities. In the Kenyan Cyberspace we have instances where blackmailers or others individuals act to disclose LGBTI person’s true sexual orientation or gender identity without that person’s consent. This act is called outing.

In the Kenyan Cyberspace Queer family is used as an umbrella term for sexual orientations and gender identities that are not heterosexual or which don’t conform to the male or female gender binary. Sexual minority is a group whose sexual identity, orientation or practice differs from the majority of the surrounding society.

Each day new synonyms emerge in the Kenyan Cyberspace to conceal identity and to provide for proper safety for those feeling endangered, at the same time provide safe spaces for conversions between those who feel discriminated and stigmatized based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Kenyan Cyberspace giving answers to unanswered questions

Kenyan Cyberspace

Kenyan Cyberspace has widely been seen as a hideout for youngsters and teenagers who are in the process of discovering themselves. Exploring and discovering one self without proper guidance can be very disastrous, while on the other hand it can be gainful if enough guidance was provided to these youngsters.

I have always asserted that, any upbringing of a child should be freely administered allowing the child to pass through all the stages of life. This shouldn’t be misconstrued to mean giving freedom to a child to do wrong things. My idea is to allow a parent or guardian to walk through the steps of life with a child helping him or her to identify what is good or bad and eventually empowering them to choose wisely.

Restricting a child to passing through all these stages is like condemning it into a den of lions. As the child grows it becomes curious why certain stages a restricted without clarity. That’s where the challenge arises. Kenyan Cyberspace comes in handy in answering a wide range of unanswered questions. It also provides linkages of how to quest the thirst of self discovery. If these things were discussed together with guardians earlier in life a healthy conversation will ensue averting a situation where the kid would be considered a rebel or a renegade. Kenyan Cyberspace can therefore be seen as a tool of opening up discussions that are never allowed in the real society.